Silicon Valley's Female CEOs: Gone

VMWare (VMW) CEO and co-founder Diane Greene's ouster this week had nothing to do with her gender. But it did mark an unpleasant gender milestone: Dianne's sacking means that none of the Valley’s 150 biggest corporations have a single female CEO, the Mercury News reports. Then again, it didn't take much for that to happen. The Valley's only other prominent female CEO, eBay’s (EBAY) Meg Whitman, left earlier this year.

And yes, there are still some women in powerful positions in the Valley. Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook, for instance, and Sue Decker at Yahoo. Much more telling, though, is this stat: Santa Clara County ranked lowest in the state for the number of women in the top ranks of big firms.